How They Shine
by Paul and Erin
Summary: Fear and longing… Love and hopelessness… Secrets and revelation… Hope and Damnation… A short fic-lett chronicling a decision the night before the final battle… Summary Within.


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_**OVERVIEW;**_

_This is probably the only piece of fanfiction you will ever see me write. I have been a Naruto Fan for about 2 years now, although not a chronic Narutard like Ben. I'm familiar enough with the story to validate these views of how I believe the story will end and how things will progress. I may still be wrong on every considerable level, but I'm confident enough to not only write this, but post it on this site. I'm not a fanfiction writer by any means. I'm too leery of attempting anything large scale that isn't of my own design. So, sit back, grab some 'corn and enjoy this small homage to the one subject that has won my attention and devotion long enough to permit a slip in my normally stoic intolerance of fanfiction…_

_Paul_

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**How They Shine**

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The village was quiet as the rain fell.

Water rushing off stone faces like tears in the night. There, noticed, but left unspoken, unrevealed, sacred.

Loved ones mourned their losses, while other sought solace in the arms of friends, or strangers.

That was why he went looking, hand lifted, shielding his eyes from the driving rain, scanning each doorway in search of that familiar silver head.

Nobody should be left alone on a night like this. Not even men who'd resigned themselves to solitude, or men who sat mourning over names carved in stone.

He found him alone, sitting on a bench in a gazebo like room near the tower. High above the world with his back to the rain, his hair wet and mussed, shivering slightly in the chill.

He was draped across his seat, left ankle propped on right knee, left arm lying like a loose length of knotted rope across the waist high wall the bench was placed against, fingers dangling empty and pale in the scant light.

Infuriating as always he seemed at peace with the world. Resigned, both eyes open and blank, looking at nothing, and everything at the same time.

He was almost entirely hidden in shadow, only the pale wreath of his hair and the outline of his body against distant, rain fogged village windows giving away his position.

And the pursuer shook, blue eyes watering, hair limp and wet, falling heavily over his forehead. His arms wound around himself and a sob tore through him. "Sensei?"

The man didn't move, didn't seem to react at all for almost a full thirty seconds. Then his right hand raised from its boneless position at his side and the glowing tip of a cigarette flared as he inhaled.

The moment of wonder passed quickly, a kind of anticlimax because it all seemed so ironic now. The child who'd obsessed over what was beneath that mask was gone now… Replaced by this… Shivering, terrified young man… _Weak…_

As if reading his mind pale lips parted, exhaling a thin cloud of smoke and mismatched eyes lifted slowly, lazily to meet his own.

"Fear isn't weakness… Neither is love, no matter what the rules tell you…" He swept his right hand, cigarette still poised between two fingers backward, indicating the village. "See that?"

Naruto slowly lifted his head, as if it pained him, and scanned the lighted windows below in the town, his heart tearing apart as he counted them all unconsciously…

"There's a whole village of Shinobi out there. Each one of them willing to defect for you… There is also a whole village of civilians ready to fight a war to protect you… There has never been a Hokage to rally so many people behind them simply by shedding a tear. Including the forth…

"Love is not a weakness, Naruto. Love… Love is strength. It moves mountains and changes hearts… Love defies death … It stares death in the face and laughs…"

"I can't do this-"

"Yes you can… I know you. I know how big your heart is… Your love is stronger than Sasuke's hate, and everyone knows it… Look at those lights out there, and tell me you don't feel the hope…"

"But h-he said it was fate-"

A dry chuckle broke his concentration and Naruto turned his head, staring at the exposed face that had haunted his dreams as a child in its many fictitious, horribly exaggerated incarnations.

"Fate is what you make of it. It is not some insurmountable wall or unbeatable foe. Fate isn't written in stone… It changes with every choice you make, every step you take," He smiled, his eyes still looking blank. "Fate means nothing… Your decision though, means quite a lot.

"So, are you going to decide to die- Or are you going to bring him home?"

The village was quiet as the rain fell…

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_10-29-1009 UPDATE_

_I'm so pissed right now, I'm posting this simply because I've lost my faith in the manga and need something to make me feel better... Flame if you like, but know, if you do I'll throw dirty baby diapers at your comment._

_Paul_


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